M&M DreamWorks: Sailor Moon Crystal Spotlight: Act 10 Recap!

It was adequate work in Act 10 of Sailor Moon Crystal but not more. The story of the generals feels more tacked on than anything else and serves more to take the focus of what makes Sailor Moon a strong franchise.

Following the revelation about its further schedule, Sailor Moon Crystal now officially moved into the double digit episodes. After the small highlight two weeks ago, there was hope again for better times, however, as so often this anime just cannot keep up with the simple expectations of a halfway constant quality.

Technical Performance

The music which I have long criticized as not being noteworthy is definitely getting better. This episode was once again accompanied by some nice BGM themes. Actually they are not much different than before but becomes more effective in conjuncture with the respective scenes. It's not the old anime standard yet and probably never will be, however, slowly the music becomes more worthy of the franchise's big name.

The first appearance (and there aren't that many in the manga) of the Sailor Planet Attack was simply disappointing. A little more than a simple white sphere of energy could very well be expected. This was more impressive back in the nineties and shows once again the loveless way and unwillingness to put more work into this project than strictly necessary.

Characters

What annoyed me more in this episode than in the last was the excessive use of the moniker "Princess". We all know the Japanese love their English terms in anime but it is somewhat annoying to have Queen Serenity call her daughter – or at least her reincarnation – by title alone several times. This conveys a rather crooked picture here. It was also unfortunate that Usagis last line was purged from the script where she was somewhat desperately willing to offer her own energy to speak a little longer with Queen Serenity.

Minako continues to play her role as serious leader well which is still very much in tune with the manga. She comes across great and leaves a strong impression.

Other than that there is really nothing to note about the characters. I'd like to say that the expansion of the Shitennou's story (the four generals) gave us more insight about their true character but that is not the case. They are there but with hardly a measure of individuality Only naming two virtues more like a title than anything else in the flashbacks is not going to cut it. But more on that up next.

Practical Performance

The points mentioned above aside, this episode was once again a 1:1 adaption of the manga which is why not much else can be said about it. Consequently I have to turn to the only real difference and that is the story of the Shitennou.

I've had my concerns on what would become of the story of the Shitennou for awhile now as I have often indicated (see also last week's partway review) and my fears seem to be more and more confirmed, especially since the remaining schedule will simply not allow for much more. On the first glance the material in this episodes appears new but this can really only be said about the flashbacks of the Generals and Senshi alike. Especially the first one is adequate even if not exactly exceptional. However, the rest of the changes can only be called such as that all four Shitennou were present in them and not just Kunzite. Following Beryl, remembering their past, the renewed hypnosis and the battle play out in almost the same fashion.

To make it short: The story of the Shitennou feels more like a insignificant extra that has been tacked onto the original plot without giving it any kind of substance. Certainly this is one of Sailor Moon Crystals worst points since almost all new material appears in this form. I fear the story of the Generals will end just like this: In a few short minutes of scene expansion after which we have to ask ourselves what the point was in including their story at all. At this point I would rather seen these extra minutes invested into more interaction between the girls outside their Senshi activities or more flashbacks into the Silver Millennium.

Especially if the change once again takes the effect out of the battle. In the manga it wasn't just Usagi who zipped off into space but all the Senshi. In this episode, however, the battle was more about the Senshi and Shitennou, losing most of its effect that way. Especially since I cannot unite the picture in my head of the Senshi in the manga with those that immediately lose all their will to fight upon regaining the memories about their opponents. This distorts the image of the characters even further.

All in all, such a soulless inclusion of extra content simply serves to divert focus from the actual strengths of Sailor Moon as a whole.

Conclusion

It was by far not a bad episode. That I have been overly critical of the story around the Shitennou that there were not many more changes in this episode to analyze. It is sadly a shame that Sailor Moon Crystal often makes itself worse with the forced inclusion of new content for the sake of new content than it could be. The individuality of the contents that go beyond the manga is sorely missing since they come across as tacked on more without standing out on their own (in fact often enough it's the complete opposite). It's those small things that make always drag Sailor Moon Crystal down. Despite that Act 10 is at least an adequate episode, regardless of how one views the story of the Shitennou.

Score: 3.75/5